1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus that identifies incoming telephone calls and allows the called party to accept or reject the call before the telephone company has connected the two parties together.
2. Description of Related Art
Changes in the North American telephone network have opened the door to new services available to business and residential customers. In particular, CLASS (Caller ID, Return Call, Call Block, Repeat Call, Priority Call, and Select Forward) services have been made possible, in part, by the deployment of a common channel interoffice signaling system called SS7. This signaling system brings information about the call to points in the telephone network not previously available. For example, the identity of the calling party is made available, electronically, to the called party.
The Caller ID feature particularly promises a series of novel and useful benefits to the telephone subscriber. The telephone number of the calling party is made available such that it can be presented to the called party. Of particular note, especially in light of the ruling concerning information service offering by telephone companies, the data representing the calling party number is transmitted before the called party has answered, officially completing the connection. Because this is the case, the called party can use the information to make a decision whether of not to answer the telephone or how it is to be answered.
To date, the majority of subscriber owned and provided devices used to receive and interpret the data containing the calling party's number make use of some sort of visual display to convey the information to the user. Some devices do not display the data but make it available in a form which can be accepted by a personal computer.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,956, issued Apr. 15, 1986 to Carolyn A. Doughty, a method is disclosed to display special information about a call, such as the calling party's telephone number. The method does not provide means for vocalized announcement of the number or association with any other information about the caller.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,496, issued May 8, 1990 to Romek Figa, an incoming call number display is described that permits the called party to view the name or number of the caller. Although the invention provides means to associate the caller's number with a name, it does not provide means for vocalized announcement.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,055, issued Oct. 1, 1991 to John P. Hanle, a system is disclosed to pass the calling party's number sent by the telephone office to a computer system. While common hardware and software components are available to announce the caller's identity, provision is not made for announcement over the answered telephone set, nor is it an object of such to implement a call announcement apparatus.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,848, issued Jan. 19, 1988 to Tadahiko Akiyama, a system is disclosed to render information about an incoming call. While vocalized announcement is achieved over the telephone set, a special telephone office switch or private branch exchange (PBX) is necessary.
Similar implementations are cited in U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,358, issued Feb. 6, 1990, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,076, issued Apr. 9, 1991, both to James R. Blakely. Such implementations provide all vocalized announcement means via apparatus located at the telephone office switch or PBX, and are not designed as small business or residential premise equipment on trunks provisioned with the Caller ID enhanced service feature.
A variety of products are available that do not utilize the Caller ID enhanced service feature but instead screen incoming calls by querying the caller for a name or number after the telephone connection has been established. U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,968, issued Dec. 8, 1981 to Klausner et al, discloses such an apparatus that answers the incoming telephone call and directs the caller to enter his or her telephone number using the telephone set tone keypad. Next, the device performs a search through a database of callers before ringing the premise extensions and announcing the caller's name. Such a device not only requires cooperation from the calling party to enter the telephone number but may result in a billed toll call since the call has actually been answered.
The disclosed invention improves on the prior art by providing a single-line customer premise apparatus that transmits the name or number of the calling party audibly via the telephone itself. In contrast to existing devices which provide a visual display, the invention does not require the subscriber to be within viewing distance, nor does it require the subscriber to purchase and install units for each extension telephone. The invention can serve all telephones on the premises as well as being used with cordless telephones. The device is compatible with the "Caller ID" and "Caller ID with Call Waiting" enhanced service features available from a growing number of telcos.